Who We Are

StreetInvest was co-founded by Patrick Shanahan, John McGuinness and Duncan Ross and registered as a charity in England & Wales on 16th December 2008. Denise McEvoy, our first Director of Training Services, developed the Street Worker Training, now known as “Take Your Shoes Off”, in the 1990’s for application in Eastern Europe based on her substantial experience working with children and youth in the United Kingdom. This was then adapted for Africa with Patrick and, from 2002 to 2008, training programmes were delivered by Denise and Patrick in eight countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

StreetInvest was established to allow the further development of this training; deepening its application, broadening its scope and extending its reach.
In the last decade, more than 700 participants have received the Core Training, including close to 50 who have gone through the Training of Trainers course. StreetInvest believes that a conservative estimate of the reach of these street workers would be some 37,500 children on a regular basis.

UK Staff

Duncan Ross,
Co-CEO & Founding Member

Duncan has a Development Economics Degree from the School of Africa Studies, Sussex University. He has had almost 30 years experience in the finance industry beginning in development finance and culminating with JPMorgan. He has been working to support street children for the last 8 years. Duncan is also a member of StreetInvest's Advisory Council.

Kate Bretherton
Co-CEO & Development Director

Kate has an English Language & Literature Masters Degree from Oxford University. She has worked in International Development since 2004, with posts including Chief Operations Officer and Acting Director at the Consortium for Street Children (CSC). She is a members of CSC’s Advisory Forum and has been a Trustee for Students Supporting Street Kids since 2003.

Hugo Rukavina

Systems & Information Manager

Hugo has an MSc in Practicing Sustainable Development from Royal Holloway, University of London with a dissertation on the measurement of wellbeing of street children and how this can show evidence of impact of street work. Hugo is managing StreetInvest's Monitoring & Evaluation and IT systems, and is the project manager for Sierra Leone. He has experience from youth work in his native Norway and from the software industry in the UK.

Georgina Day

Impact & Communications Manager

Georgina joins us after six years in advertising and CSR communications, working on household brands including Dove, Ford, TUI travel and Virgin Media, as well as pro bono clients such as Amnesty International. Georgina looks after StreetInvest's communications, brand and impact management. She sits within the Programmes team and combines analysis, strategic communications thinking and creative execution, to tell meaningful stories about StreetInvest’s impact and to build the organisation's profile.

Francesca Douka,

Donor Manager & Volunteer Coordinator

Francesca has a degree in criminology with psychology and joined our team in July 2014 as donor manager and volunteer coordinator. She also manages our social media channels and supports our operations and community engagement activities.

Jacob Brunner
Partner Development Manager

Jacob is our Partner Development Manager, working to establish a global network of NGOs committed to delivery of effective street work in support of street-connected children. Jacob joins us having recently been based at UN World Food Programme. Jacob completed a masters in Development Administration and Planning at UCL, graduating in 2015 with Distinction. Jacob’s undergraduate dissertation from The University of Manchester explored the value of street work practice.

Global Trainers

George Quaker
Global Trainer

George is the Project Coordinator for Action for the Rights of Children (ARC), in Kenema, Sierra Leone. He is a a former street connected child, and has been working with ARC since 2007 on child protection issues. He is now a Global Trainer of street workers for StreetInvest. He had a leading role in the national head count of street children in Sierra Leone in 2011, and delivered his first international street worker training in Ghana in 2012. In November 2012 he spoke at the All Party Parlimentary Committee on Street Children in the House of Commons in London.

Fred Mbise

Global Trainer

Fred is co-founder and CEO of Watotowetu Development Foundation, a charity registered in Tanzania to support street connected children in Arusha. He has worked directly with street connected children and youth since 2010 and is also an active board member for Caucus for Children’ Rights (CCR). Fredrick has delivered training for StreetInvest in Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda and India. Fredrick has a Bachelor Degree in Education from The Open University of Tanzania and MA in Community Development from Mt. Meru University.

Tijani Mahmoud

Global Trainer

Tijani Mahmoud works for Muslim Family Counselling Services in Kumasi, Ghana as project coordinator. Tijani was one of StreetInvest’s first trainers in West Africa and regularly delivers training for StreetInvest in Ghana and Sierra Leone. He has 9 years’ experience in working with young people and counselling, especially with young women in reproductive health. He was involved in the training of trainers for the National Headcount of street children in Sierra Leone in 2011.

Trustees

Cees Kramer

Chair of Trustees

Cees has been involved with StreetInvest since 2010 and chairs the Board of trustees. Cees has extensive international experience gained during a 35 year career with BP and Dialogos International. He has lived and worked in Amsterdam, Singapore, Cape Town and has now settled in London. Cees strongly believes that no child should grow up alone. His key focus on the board is StreetInvest's sustainability and maximising StreetInvest's impact through advocacy and in partnership with international and local NGOs.

Kim Darton

Kim spent over 20 years in international marketing, ultimately as Duty Free Director at Grand Metropolitan’s IDV. He then elected to join the voluntary sector in a fundraising capacity. He set up his own consultancy in Cause Related Marketing, thereby playing a role in the seeding of CSR, before going on to lead Save the Children’s Corporate Development team, and becoming Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Children in Crisis and The Shooting Star Trust. After over 10 years as Trustee of Children of the Andes, building on extensive Latin American experience while at IDV, he now assists in the development of children and youth development charities. Kim is a fluent French and Spanish speaker. He is also the Chair of StreetInvest's Advisory Council.

William Johnston

Bill Johnston recently retired from a 36-year career with Canada's Foreign Service which took him thrice to Asia (Korea, India, Vietnam) and to the UK, Brazil and the USA. His specialties are international marketing, team building, performance measurement and music. He hopes to parlay his interests in education, youth and economic development into a meaningful contribution to the voluntary sector.

Livia Boumeester

After studying psychology at the University of Exeter, Livia joined StreetInvest working within both programmes and fundraising. Livia left her role at StreetInvest in 2016 and joined Lloyds Banking Group where she now works in the Responsible Business team. Livia continues to be involved with StreetInvest on the Board of Trustees, where she hopes to use her knowledge from her role at StreetInvest as well as corporate fundraising experience to support the organisation.

Duncan Milroy
Treasurer

Duncan worked in senior management roles in the UK charity sector from 2002 to 2008 (Norwood, World Jewish Relief) after a career in the international oil industry; subsequently he has worked as a volunteer in charities and an African NGO. Past voluntary roles include Treasurer of People In Aid, Vice-Chair of the Norwood Adoption Committee and Chief Operating Officer of StreetInvest (2012 -15). Duncan is a founder and trustee of the UK charities Streets Ahead Rwanda and Inspiration In Motion. He is a qualified accountant.

Poppy Velosa

Poppy has been working in support of street children since she took a work placement from St Paul’s Catholic College Sunbury at the age of 15 years. She has continued to support street children since. In addition to personally arranged visits to both Ghana (conducting research into police violence towards street children) and two visits to Sierra Leone to work with street child organisations (where she met the Codwela team that we now support); Poppy worked with StreetInvest as Fundraising and Operations Officer for a year before she went to university in 2009. She is currently studying Animal Management and hopes to use this to support street children in the future through African animal conservation projects.

Philip Pritchard

Philip was a stockbroker for 20 years, a large part of which was spent in Hong Kong, before leaving to establish an African Investment Fund in 2008. The Fund, called '8 Miles', has raised $200m to date for investment into African businesses, and Philip remains a Partner and Non-Executive Director. He also remains a Non-Executive Director of CLSA, the Asian stockbroker whose European business he ran from 2003 until 2008. Philip has extensive knowledge of the City and a track record of raising money and managing successful businesses.

Founders

Duncan Ross

Duncan has a Development Economics Degree from the School of Africa Studies, Sussex University. He has had almost 30 years experience in the finance industry beginning in development finance and culminating with JPMorgan. He has been working to support street children for the last 8 years. Duncan is also a member of StreetInvest's Advisroy Council.

Father Patrick Shanahan

A Catholic Priest & White Father, Patrick worked in developing countries for over 40 years. After meeting street children in Accra, Ghana, in the late 1980's, he began a lifelong mission to offer street children real choices and opportunities. In his extraordinary life he influenced and inspired many with his belief in and committment to street children. He passed away on the 7th August 2016. The vision he laid out for a just life for every street child guides StreetInvest and our work is his legacy. Read more about his work here.

John McGuinness

John has been an international financial lawyer for the past 25 years, in the City of London and Hong Kong. John had been supporting street children for two years before becoming a co-founder of StreetInvest.

Advisory Council

StreetInvest's Advisory Council is a team of specialist professionals who volunteer their expertise and time on a quarterly basis.

Kim Darton - Chair

Kim spent over 20 years in international marketing, ultimately as Duty Free Director at Grand Metropolitan’s IDV. He then elected to join the voluntary sector in a fundraising capacity. He set up his own consultancy in Cause Related Marketing, thereby playing a role in the seeding of CSR, before going on to lead Save the Children’s Corporate Development team, and becoming Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Children in Crisis and The Shooting Star Trust. After over 10 years as Trustee of Children of the Andes, building on extensive Latin American experience while at IDV, he now assists in the development of children and youth development charities. Kim is a fluent French and Spanish speaker.

Sally Shire

Sally Shire is a marketing and communications consultant, working across NGO and corporate sectors. She is also a trustee of the Brain Research Trust, Chair of Audit Committee for Family Action, the UK’s largest family charity and a Non-Executive director for Age UK Enterprises. Sally has spent most of her career in senior marketing roles in FTSE 100 companies, including Aviva PLC and Barclays PLC. As Global Brand Director for Aviva, she led the award-winning global rebranding programme, which replaced a number of disparate brands with Aviva – the single global brand. Prior to this, Sally was Director of Marketing for Aviva’s UK Life business. Previously, Sally held a number of roles at Barclays PLC, including Corporate Affairs Director and Marketing Communications Manager for Barclaycard. In 2011, Sally moved into the NGO sector as CEO for the Consortium for Street Children. She is now a consultant and lives in Horsham, West Sussex.

Jacquie Irvine

Co-Founder, Director Good Values Corporate Responsibility Agency. Jacquie began her career with Procter & Gamble in marketing and general management, where she lead global brands such as Pantene and worked in the UK and internationally over 12 years. She then worked as a business consultant for large multinational and SME clients advising them on business strategies, marketing, brand positioning and product innovation. She co-founded Good Values CR Agency seven years ago and works with corporates on their CR strategies and helps charities with their brand positioning and fundraising. Good Values specializes in helping companies maximise their Return on Investment from their CR strategies and community programmes, ensuring that they deliver both a strong social impact and business benefit.

Cees Kramer

Cees has been involved with StreetInvest since 2010 and chairs the Board of trustees. Cees has extensive international experience gained during a 35 year career with BP and Dialogos International. He has lived and worked in Amsterdam, Singapore, Cape Town and has now settled in London. Cees strongly believes that no child should grow up alone. His key focus on the board is StreetInvest's sustainability and maximising StreetInvest's impact through advocacy and in partnership with international and local NGOs.

Grace Keisner

Grace graduated from Bristol University in 2012, and subsequently worked for StreetInvest for about a year as their Fundraising and Operations officer. before completing the Teach First programme in London. She is now a an Associate at PwC UK, Management Consultancy.

Gerald Davies

Gerald has spent thirty years working in the City, most recently as a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank. He has just completed a Masters degree in Finance and Development at SOAS, University of London and is now building a portfolio of roles in the voluntary and commercial sector. Gerald is Chairman of the Audit Committee at the Brandon Trust, a charity caring for people with learning disabilities. He is also a Senior Adviser to the Board of Metapraxis Limited, a business analysis and software enterprise."

Vanessa Rhodes

Vanessa is Global Media Relations Director at AstraZeneca. Specialising in building corporate reputation programmes for blue chips, she was previously Head of Corporate Reputation at Aviva. Prior to joining Aviva in 2007, she held corporate communications roles at Marks & Spencer, L’Oreal and Abbey National. Vanessa began her career in California where she gained a Masters degree in journalism.

John Collenette

After a career in the world of international finance and energy, in London, New York, Paris and Singapore, John Collenette is currently studying for an MSc in Development Studies and Social Anthropology at Birkbeck College. He is involved in a number of voluntary activities, in particular as chair of trustees of ACE Africa, an organisation that works with those affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya and Tanzania, and as a member of the board of trustees of Treeaid. He has a keen interest in sustainable.

Philip Pritchard

Philip was a stockbroker for 20 years, a large part of which was spent in Hong Kong, before leaving to establish an African Investment Fund in 2008. The Fund, called '8 Miles', has raised $200m to date for investment into African businesses, and Philip remains a Partner and Non-Executive Director. He also remains a Non-Executive Director of CLSA, the Asian stockbroker whose European business he ran from 2003 until 2008. Philip has extensive knowledge of the City and and track record of raising money and managing successful businesses, albeit not in the charity field.

James Noble

James completed his MA in French at Edinburgh University and his MBA at INSEAD in France in 1980. He worked for Kleinwort Benson for 4 years in corporate finance before being appointed head of CS First Boston's investment banking group in Tokyo from 1985 to 1990. As a Managing Director of CS First Boston until the end of 1996, he was then responsible for the worldwide new business development of its investment management operations. After completing his post-graduate studies in Computer Science at Imperial College in London he established Mazepoint in 1998, a company that helps its customers collect and consolidate data, and use it to solve problems and reveal insights that drive growth and profitability. He speaks French, German, some Japanese and some Spanish.